Episode 1290: Circling the Wagenen
Date October 31, 2018 ' '''Summary ''Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan banter about Boston’s outfield rotation during the World Series, the significance of declining World Series ratings, the Orioles and the difficulty of classifying “tanking” teams, Manny Machado’s public persona and whether his reputation will hurt his free-agent appeal, and the Mets’ hiring of agent Brodie Van Wagenen as their new GM. They also answer two listener emails about the Astros and do a Stat Blast about the differences between postseason and regular-season baseball. Topics * When do Astros get bad, if they never change players * Astros double plays Intro * Dinosaur Jr., "The Wagon" Outro * Lou Reed, "Wagon Wheel" Banter * Rotating outfielders * Ratings decline * “Tanking” teams * Free agent outlook * Manny Machado * Mets GM hire Email Questions * Gary from Baltimore: When I lived in Northeast Ohio, one of the most common complaints I would hear was lamenting the Indians breaking up the great teams from the 90s, despite the fact that those beloved players would have been mostly terrible by that point. What if Astros owner Jim Crane were to take this fan advice to heart and extend everyone on the 2018 Astros 40-man roster lifetime contracts and never change the 40-man roster again? Assuming the players couldn't retire, and that the Astros would never have so many injuries that they couldn't physically field a team, which season you would guess the Astros wouldn't be division favorites? When they would be projected as sub .500? When they would challenge the 2003 Tigers? When they would be Pecos League quality? * Earl from Portland: What the hell is up with all GIDPs that the Astros are piling up? Not sure if there's a stat blast in this, but has a team this "good" ever been this bad at avoid double plays? StatBlast * In 33 games this playoffs the games were 5 minutes slower than regular season, there were 5.2 pitches used a game up from 4.7 last year. * This playoffs runs per game was up 3.9 down from 4.5 in regular season, with 40 percent of runs on playoffs down 2 percent from regular season * Regular season strikeout rate was 22.3 percent, 24.7 was the regular season rate. * This year had the lowest ever batting average and team slugging, the league OPS was .659 in the playoffs. * Average BABIP was .268 this year in the playoffs. * Walk rate was 10 percent most since 2000. * Relievers pitched 49.7 percent of innings this postseason. Notes * “It doesn't matter if baseball is dying because we are dying faster” - Jeff * “I like Manny Machado less than I liked Manny Machado a month ago” - Ben * The Astros got into the second most double plays in history this year. Links https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/effectively-wild-episode-1290-circling-the-wagenen/ Link to Craig Edwards on World Series TV ratings Link to Jeff’s post on the Orioles Link to Ben on quantifying hustle Link to Sheryl Ring on hiring agents as GMs Link to Jeff on postseason stats Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes